National News

The DeshBhakt’s Akash Banerjee Calls B’desh PM Sheikh Hasina A “Dictator”, A “Tana Shah” – Is He Also Peddling A Certain Narrative?

July 25, 2024
The Commune

In a live stream episode of The Deshbhakt YouTube Channel in 2023, Akash Banerjee is asked by a viewer to talk about the post-Panchayat-poll violence in West Bengal that year. To this, Banerjee replied, “What is very very fascinating is that in that negative sense is that, violence is in the DNA of West Bengal.”

In July 2024, when the violence (student protests) broke out in Bangladesh, Banerjee released a video titled ” Bangladesh Student Protests | What Is ‘Dictator’ Sheikh Hasina Afraid Of?”

Thus begins the portrayal of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as a dictator.

As the video begins, the screen reads, “This episode is dedicated to the thousands of Bangladeshi student protestors who stood up to a dictator to ask for what is right. Many of them had to pay the ultimate price of speaking up…”

Banerjee also claimed “Sheikh Hasina government has declared war against the youth of its country. We don’t know how many such incidents will happen, there is no calculation for it. This is being called one of the worst episodes of slaughter in the history of Bangladesh.”

He further says, “The curfew is in progress in the whole of Bangladesh. There is a complete internet blackout, at the time of recording this video. That is why many videos and many incidents have not been able to come out. In the history of Bangladesh, another chapter is being written and the credit for this goes to “Tana Shah” Sheikh Hasina. But, in front of the students, this Tana Shah has had to bow, as student demands could not be suppressed.”

All through the video, he keeps emphasizing the fact that Sheikh Hasina is a dictator, further stating, “Why did Sheikh Hasina behave so brutally and dictatorially against students, even though this is only a student protest?”

He claimed that, in reality, Sheikh Hasina was using the quota system to give jobs to her favourite people, that she was making her own cadre in the government, and that the youth of Bangladesh was being deceived in the name of this reservation.

Banerjee could not understand the logic behind continuing the reservation for the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters.

He further claimed, “Sheikh Hasina was accused of making fake freedom fighter certificates for her favourites, so that she can make a Godi civil servant cadre. After that, the whole system can be in her hands.”

Would he care to talk about the reservation in India? Well, he justifies it by saying that the freedom fighter quota is not based on economic or social backwardness. He says, “There is a difference, especially this 30% freedom fighter quota. In India, reservation is done for caste-based social justice, according to the population and according to the study of social backwardness. Reservation is a system that is made so that SC, ST, and OBC communities get government jobs and education so that caste oppression, which is a historical disadvantage, and discrimination, can be reduced to some extent. There is no debate.”

Then he comes once again to “expose” the “dictatorial” face of Sheikh Hasina. He says, “It is important to understand the kind of dictatorial rule in Bangladesh. In January 2024, Sheikh Hasina got a historic victory That was no election. Only Awami League contested the election and the opposition did not participate. Too much fakiri going on. And this is what a well-known global anti-corruption organization, Transparency International, says that the elections in Bangladesh were one-sided and fake. Sheikh Hasina’s Godi Election Commission made a voter list, poll schedule, and constitution delimitation in her favour. Godi Judiciary convicted more than 1,500 opposition leaders a few months before the elections. Through the Cyber Security Act, the government tried to silence independent media outlets, put journalists in jail, and even the Nobel laureate, Yunus Muhammad, whose micro-financing model brought an economic miracle to Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina’s government did case after case on him, a formula you may know. In the 2024 elections, the opposition parties said that they would boycott the election and embarrass you. They said that they would not participate in the elections until the independent election commission was formed. They wanted to corner Sheikh Hasina. Sheikh Hasina has a different Fakiri. She said that they will hold the elections without opposition. An Opposition-free Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina has control over every institution in Bangladesh. Everything is under his control. When the High Court reintroduced the quota system on 5 June 2024, students were convinced that it was not an independent decision It was an order of Sheikh Hasina. She just wanted to get her decision read by the judiciary and put a judicial stamp. She wanted to re-introduce quota to make civil servants her own.”

He further says, “She said in a press conference that if not for the grandchildren of freedom fighters, then do the protesters want us to give quota to the grandchildren of the Razaqars? Basically, student protesters were called pro-Razaqar. Now, for context, Razaqar were those people who helped the Pakistan army in the 1971 Liberation War. That is, they gave the highest level of anti-national tag to student protesters. Razaqar is such a powerful word in Bangladesh. Tukde Tukde Gang, Khan Market Gang, Soros Gang, Libtard, Secular, Gaddar, Anti-National – mix them up – then you have Razaqar insult which is the worst of all these insults. Students were hurt, students were angry, and protests intensified even more.”

He further claimed that this type of name-calling and targeting has become an old part of the dictator toolkit to delegitimize the protesters, to call them traitors, to demotivate them.

He tries to compare Sheikh Hasina’s dictatorial rule to what he perceives as the dictatorship in India under Prime Minister Modi. Frequent references indicate as you can see for yourself – calling media as Godi media, anti-nationals, labelling, etc.

He also keeps referring to Hasina as Tana Shah all through the tirade. He says, “The legitimate demands of the protesters did not need to be suppressed by violence But what happens is that Tana Shah consider themselves to be God They think that what do these small people know, but they know everything. And according to that, they take action. Sheikh Hasina has now used the dictatorial digital toolkit. On 18th July, the internet was shut down overnight in the whole country. A complete curfew was also imposed in the cities of the country. Army troops deployed on 19th July. We don’t know how many students have died or how many have been injured. Because information blackout is still going on.”

Is Banerjee Referring To Sheikh Hasina Because She Is India’s Ally? Or Is There More To It?

Banerjee’s labelling of Sheikh Hasina as a “dictator” and calling her Tana Shah repeatedly indicate that since Bangladesh’s PM is a good friend of India, and also there have been reports of the US trying to meddle with the Bangladeshi political scene, certain things add up.

It is noteworthy that Banerjee has been invited to be part of a programme conducted by the US Embassy in India titled “Influence to Impact”.

With the kind of narrative Banerjee is setting about Bangladesh and his participation in the event conducted by the US Embassy, it might be perceived that the US is trying to use “Influencers” like Banerjee to influence the Indian audience about Bangladesh and the student protestors. We had also reported how foreign bots and propaganda media channels were trying to fuel the student protests in Bangladesh. 

In the whole video, Banerjee has been supporting the protests, and calling Hasina the dictator. Is he setting a precedent for something ominous that might happen in India in the near future? Time will tell.  

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